Expert: Trey McGowan - 9/30/2009

Question
Dear Trey,
I have a 10 month old son, who screamed bloody murder for the first 5 month of life. It was not the usual colic as people describe as a certain time of day it was all day everyday. He started to progress at about 6 months although still very very fussy all day everyday. I had him on a very expensive formula and prevacid, an acid reflux medicine because he was projectile vomiting. After numerous of test that said nothing was wrong and nothing was helping I decided to take him off of medicine and put him on regular formula and just let him grow out of it but he was still always very fussy and never knew what was wrong. He is still to this day a little fussy at times and I know they get cranky when tired, hungry, diaper, or just want love but something has just made me worry from day one about autism.
He did not roll over both ways till 6 months. Screamed bloody murder on his tummy or when anyone tried to cuddle him. Hates being rocked. He now crawls and pulls himself up to stand but does not wave bye bye, point, clap, imitate gestures, hates getting dressed he screams and cries, does the same thing before feeding screams and cries, he recognizes me and his dad but I have to say his name a million times before he will look at me or sometimes won't at all. He does smile at me when I smile at him and makes some eye contact not for very long, because he is always looking for something to grab. He will sometimes be crawling and stop and cry for no reason. He struggles with naps and has just seemed different than many other babies I have been around. He usually seems interested with his toys and does not line them up. He loves water, bath, pool, and lake. Gets excited when he sees water.He makes fummy noises when eating. I try to get him to hold his bottle but he does not realize you have to tilt it up and holds it downward. There is one of his toys that makes clapping noises and he cries when he hears it. Does any of this signal red flags when you read it? Do you think I should get him checked by a specialist? Do autism babies start out colicky?  I'm just so worried about him. I'm just thankful for any advice.
Thank you so much for your time.
Lindsay


Answer
Hi there, Lindsay!

I can't answer all of your questions, unfortunately, as I am not a doctor. I can't give you a diagnosis for your child, particularly not a physical one as your baby's vomiting is a sign of something physical, whatever may be causing it.

My suggestion is that you worry less about your child's possibility for autism at this stage, and more about the physical symptoms you are seeing. A child this age is too young to be assessed for autism, unless it is extremely profound, so you would likely need to wait on that anyhow. Most doctors prefer to wait at least for the first year to see developmental signs in aging and speech. I therefore suggest that if you are going to take your child to a specialist, rather than one for autism, you may want to consider a gastroenterologist if the vomiting issue is still there (as you haven't mentioned if it is). One way or the other, I wouldn't rule out physical reasons for the colicky behaviour out of hand.

http://autism.about.com/od/earlysignsofautism/a/redflags.htm
A list of 'red flags' for you.

I should point out that while there is no doubt autism can be a possibility, there are many things which can cause one or two of the symptoms happening without any of the others. Voice your concerns directly with your pediatrician or doctor.

If there's any further questions, comments, feedback, follow-ups, feel free to let me know!

Trey